Unexpected Visitor
by Shaundi-Goth-Kitty
Summary: Robbie Rotten's plans to get rid of Sportacus backfire spectacularly on him when he opens up a porthole to a parallel "Lazy Town" universe.
1. Chapter 1

Robbie Rotten's plans to get rid of Sportacus backfire spectacularly on him when he opens up a pothole to a parallel "Lazy Town" universe.

**Chapter One**

All Robbie Rotten wanted was to have a quiet day. A quiet, lazy, day EVERY day. What was so wrong with being lazy? Things had been fine until Sportacus and Stephanie had turned up in town and insisted on everybody being energetic.

_Damn them!_ He thought as he tinkered with his latest invention. With any luck it would get that big blue goof out of town for good and everything would go back to being lazy again. Without his boundless energy and those accursed super powers, Sportacus would no doubt up sticks and take a hike right out of town.

An evil grin crossed Robbie's face as he aligned the last of the focusing lenses and connected the last few wires. Turning the switch to "on", the machine slowly whirred into life. "It works! It works" Robbie cried, jumping up and down. But Robbie's joy turned to worry as the machine began to shake and rumble. He backed away slowly and cowered behind his row of costumes as the contraption fired an energy beam from the nozzle of the "gun" and hit the nearest wall. Rather than ricocheting off, a huge shimmering hole of energy opened up. It looked almost like some sort of porthole but Robbie Rotten preferred not to get too close to it. He cautiously moved back towards the machine with all of the intention of switching it off... until he heard a yell and a thud.

Robbie peered around to where he had heard the noise, half expecting to find one of those nauseating children in his lair. Well, the person certainly had pink hair but she looked far too old to be that odious Stephanie. The hair style was all wrong as it was in dreadlocks. And the outfit was all completely off, as she was wearing black and the clothes looked like they belonged to a Goth cult. She was wearing PVC trousers, a bodice style top and boots that were more buckle than boot.

The woman stood up, dusted herself off and took in her surroundings. "Great," she muttered, "which smart arse decided to open this porthole?"

"Err... that'll be me..." Robbie Rotten answered sheepishly from his hiding place.

The woman jumped and spun around to face him. She then eyed the machine. Before she could ask, comment or question, the machine promptly blew a fuse, shuddered and began smoking. At the same moment, the porthole disappeared. The stranger's face turned into one of shock and panic as she looked between the machine and the now solid wall.

"No! It can't close! I can't stay here!" She yelled, banging her fits against the now solid wall. She eventually gave up and sat on the floor.

Robbie, who hadn't said a word during all of this, finally got the courage up to approach her. "Who are you? Where did you come from through that... well, porthole I guess?"

She was silent for a moment before replying "Stephanie... I'm from a place called Lazy Town."

Robbie almost fell over with surprise when she said that. Was this some kind of parallel universe Stephanie sat in front of him? From a parallel Lazy Town? He shook his head. There was no such thing as time travel and parallel universes... was there?

The parallel Stephanie stood up and looked at Robbie again. "Where am I?"

He hesitated before answering. "You're in Lazy Town."

It was far too nice a day to be indoors. So, the children of Lazy Town were doing what they did best; playing. They were totally oblivious to Robbie Rotten's plans for their Superhero friend or that it had gone badly wrong. But their active afternoon was about to be disturbed by the oncoming revelations.

The hatch to Robbie's hideout opened. The alternate world Stephanie poked her head above ground cautiously, a habit born out of years of conflict and having to dodge gun fire. Robbie Rotten had been right, this Lazy Town was quiet and green and certainly didn't have any conflict going on.

Steph felt sad as she emerged from the underground base, Robbie following her, a little uncertain. He had no idea what to expect from this woman, who had literally appeared out of thin air from a different reality, or so she claimed. A Lazy Town that looked more post Apocalyptic that his Lazy Town. It made his head hurt. So Robbie decided he would stop all this thinking lark. Thinking about over complicated stuff got you nowhere, he convinced himself.

"So, um, what do you plan to do now?" Robbie asked uncertainly.

Steph seemed lost in thought for a while, like she was processing multiple thoughts at the same time. Then a look of pain seemed to cross her face for the briefest of seconds, so brief Robbie wasn't sure he actually saw what she saw.

"Is...is he still here? Sportacus? He's still here in your world, isn't he?" Steph looked at him, she seemed pained.

Robbie nodded. Steph took a deep breath to try and steady herself. In her version of Lazy Town, Sportacus was long dead, murdered by her alternate reality Robbie Rotten. This was going to be difficult and complicated but she knew Sportacus would be the one who would know what to do, to get her back home.

The children of Lazy Town were outside playing as Steph approached the town. She was thankful that she had managed to get this far unchallenged. Seeing the children so care free and happy made her smile. _Make the most of it_ she thought to herself then scolded herself for being a pessimist. Why should she assume this Lazy Town would go the same way as her own? The Robbie Rotten she had met here was harmless compared to the one in her world. Certainly not capable of becoming a mass murderer. A massive pain in the backside, yes, but not a mass murderer.

Then she saw her. The little girl with the pink hair, probably no older than her early teens, about 12, 13 maybe. She looked so happy messing about with her friends and Steph couldn't help but feel a little envious, remembering when her life was that simple. Sitting down on the ground, Steph suddenly had the overwhelming urge to cry. Why couldn't life just go back to way it was, before itv went all nuts? It all looked so _normal_ in this reality.

The alternate world Stephanie was so caught up in her own musings and generally brooding over the unfairness of her own reality, that she never even noticed him approach her. But when she felt the hand on her shoulder, Steph jumped a foot in the air. It was him, it was Sportacus! Steph could hardly breath and it felt like her brain had completely disconnected from her body. She just couldn't react in any way. Her Sportacus was dead and here he was, alive again. _No, no, he's not my Sportacus, he's dead. This one belongs to this world, not mine. _This was going to get _really_ screwy, _really_ quickly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Sportacus said as he stood up and helped her to her feet. "You just looked like you needed help."

Finally dragging her voice out of herself, Steph asked "is it that obvious?"

"Who are you? I guess you're new around here. I don't remember seeing you around before."

"You could say that," Steph replied "and it was you I was looking for. I need your help."

Sportacus raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"

Steph took a massively deep breath. She knew she was going to sound like a complete nut job but she needed to take that step. He still had a hold of her hand from where he had helped her stand up.

"You're probably not going to believe this and you'll no doubt think I'm a crazy person..." she paused and then said "I'm Stephanie...I came here from an alternate universe. Robbie Rotten brought me here by accident. And I need your help to get back."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Sportacus let go of her hand like he'd been given a electric shock and stepped back. She was right, he did think she was a crazy person. But, at the same time, her face was familiar. Maybe she was telling the truth, maybe she was an older version of Stephanie. Maybe he was the one finally losing the plot and imagining things. How can there be two Stephanies?

"I appreciate this is a lot to take in," Steph said quietly. "I shouldn't be here but Robbie brought me here by accident and I have to get back. You're the only person I can think of that would know what to do."

Sportacus nodded slowly. "Yes it is a lot to take in. I've not exactly had a lot of experience with people from other dimensions." He then smiled kindly, catching Steph off guard. "It won't exactly be the easiest thing I've been asked to do,"Sportacus added.

Steph nodded. "I can appreciate that."

Sportacus thought for a moment then said, "maybe we should find a place for you to stay for a while, just while we figure out what to do. And you'll have to start from the beginning so I can figure out how best to help you."

Steph relaxed a little. At least he hadn't run for the hills or sent for the doctors from the local nut house to lock her up. Any other person probably would have. But this was Sportacus. He wasn't exactly your average person. Deciding that maybe inflicting her straight onto society probably wasn't the best idea right away, Steph ended up crashing with Sportacus in his air ship. They spoke long into the night; about how Robbie Rotten's ray gun contraption had gone off by accident and had broken through into her alternate Lazy Town but then the portal had then shut on her when the invention had broken down. It was obvious that they needed to get it working again and hope that it would be able to find and open the portal again.

"It's obviously a week point between our two worlds and the ray gun thing had been powerful enough to break the barrier between the two," Steph said. "Do you know anyone who could help Robbie get it working?"

Sportacus thought. "Only a young lad called Pixel... but he's just a kid, I'm not sure how much help he'd be."

Steph grinned. "Oh, trust me, he'll be more than helpful. We'll just have to hope he's agreeable to helping me."

Eventually tiredness got the better of her and Steph fell asleep. Sportacus left her sleeping on his bed and sat in his chair for a long time after, just thinking. _What the heck am I getting myself into here? _He thought. _I must be going crazy myself to get mixed up in all of this. _He looked over at the woman lying asleep in his bed. Part of him tugged at his heart. How could he _not_ help her? It went against his very nature. As mad as it all was, he would do what he could to get her home. All he had to do was talk to Pixel and see if he was agreeable and didn't think it was completely bonkers.

"What? Really? She's from another dimension? I thought that kind of stuff only happened in the movies," Pixel said when Sportacus told him about Steph and put her idea to him.

Sportacus was relieved. So he didn't sound completely nuts for believing her and for going along with her plan. "Yeah, believe it or not, that's what she told me... and I believe her, strangely enough."

Pixel grinned. "Oh, I don't think it's crazy at all. I've always believed that there were alternate realities and such like. My mom is always telling me I need to quit watching Back To The Future so much."

That was the nice thing about children; their acceptance and imagination. Adults were too quick to dismiss and rubbish things, yet children were willing to explore the absurd and believe things that adults wouldn't. Sportacus was thankful for this as it would work to their advantage. All he had to do now was convince Robbie Rotten to let them into his not-so-secret lair so that they could access this invention of his that had brought Steph into their Lazy Town.

When Steph finally woke up, she was initially disorientated and couldn't figure out where she was. Slowly her senses came back to her. She was in Sportacus's air ship and certainly wasn't in her own world. She then became aware of the fact she had been sleeping in his bed. _Wow, like this doesn't feel weird, after such a long time,_ she thought to herself.

It made her realise just how much she still missed him. They had been together as a couple in her universe for nearly four years when he's died. Well, murdered by the Robbie Rotten in her reality. Which had made meeting the Robbie in her current location very strange. She still couldn't get used to that. _Great, now all I've succeeded in doing is making myself even more miserable,_ she grumbled mentally to herself. _Way to go Steph!_

The strange woman was playing on Robbie Rotten's mind. He hadn't slept much and he was pacing around his lair. He had heard all about these theories of alternate universes and time paradoxes and all other such like. What if her presence made things go all screwy in _his_ Lazy Town? Robbie groaned and sat down. It was giving him a headache. It wasn't all that it was cracked up to be, all this thinking. _I bet that darn pain in the butt Sportacus will now start giving me grief over this. He always feels the need to help and no doubt he'll be helping her get back to wherever it was she came from._

Then he stopped and thought a bit more. _Although if I offer to help Sportakook, it'll mean that strange woman will be gone quicker then I can go back to my peaceful life of doing nothing and trying to figure out how to get that fitness freak out of town._ Robbie congratulated himself on such a great plan.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Meeting the residents of Lazy Town was extremely strange for Steph. At first Sportacus was a little reluctant to tell them about who she was but, to save him having to look like a crazy man, Steph told them the full story of how she had gotten to their Lazy Town. Sportacus had been the one to initially break the news to them. The children weren't stupid; they had noticed that both he and Robbie Rotten had been acting a little peculiar and had eventually gotten on to Sportacus, demanding to know what was going on. Pixel had refused to talk about anything until they had spoken to him first.

Sportacus sat down with them in the local park and had told them about Steph, but had explained to them that she wanted to tell them about herself in person. That had been as awkward as hell, having to explain to a group of innocent children that she was from a alternate world where war, disease and famine were rife; a world where people would kill you if you looked at them in the wrong way. A world where their slightly above average hero was dead and they were all grown up freedom fighters fighting in a war against Robbie Rotten - who was, in her world, a sadistic murder and war lord.

"I appreciate this is a hell of a lot to take in," Steph admitted. "But while I'm here I will need all the help I can get. I can't stay here for too long."

Pixel told her all about the ideas he had for possible ways to get the machine working again and how he hoped at least one might mimic the right circumstances to get the portal open again. To the others it sounded like gibberish but to Steph, it made a lot of sense and she just hoped it would work.

"I just hope we can get Robbie to agree to let us into his lair to look at this contraption of his," Sportacus added. "He doesn't exactly like us very much,"

"But in the meantime," the younger Stephanie chimed in. "You need somewhere to stay and food and clothes and stuff." She jumped up and grabbed the older woman's hand to pull her up to a standing position. "Come on, we can talk to my uncle and ask if he minds putting you. He should be okay, he's pretty cool like that."

The older woman felt so relieved that the children had taken it all so well. She allowed her younger counterpart to pull her in the direction of her uncle's house. He too just seemed to accept this stranger into his home; especially when it transpired that she was _'a friend of Sportacus'_, as Stephanie had put it.

Once Steph had sorted out her living arrangements, and been provided with more suitable day to day wear, it was time to start talking to Robbie Rotten. At first he outright refused to let them anywhere near his lair or his invention. He was convince they would try and sabotage it or do something funny to his lair like plant booby traps. Eventually though Sportacus and Steph slowly managed to start talking him around. He was forced to agree that, if he helped them, it would mean that the stranger about town would be gone sooner and they wouldn't bother him any more. At least, not for a while anyway.

"Believe me, I don't like this as much as you," Steph reassured him. "But I want to go home and you're the only person who can realistically help me. And to do that we need access to that machine of yours."

Robbie scowled and crossed his arms across his chest. "Okay, okay, _fine! _Do what you need to do. But be quick about it... and don't touch anything you don't need to!" He added as an afterthought.

Once they got Robbie on side, Pixel began the long task of planning how they could get the machine working. Pixel studied the machine's mechanics and even looked into little things like the weather and the moon's alignment the day that Steph had arrived. He pointed out that, sometimes, the moon's gravitational pull could do funny things. Using her technological know-how, Steph helped him as much as she possibly could, considering this Lazy Town wasn't as advanced as her own.

Improvising came in very handy. It had been quite some time since she had had to do such a thing and, in a funny way, it was kind of fun. Pixel was a very intelligent boy and Step every opportunity to tell him to stay just the way he was.

Steph knew that fixing the machine would probably take a long time, so she spent a lot of time getting to know the locals. It was such a welcoming and friendly community and there was that part of Steph that wondered if she really wanted to go back to her own universe. It also felt good being around Sportacus. They would spend the early mornings going for jogs together and Sportacus found himself actually being challenged in the fitness stakes by her. It was a friendship they fell easily into and it didn't feel weird in the least bit. It was like they were always meant to be, no matter what life time or universe they lived in.

In the 'bad' Lazy Town...

Robbie paced up and down across the abandoned factory floor. It had been several days since Stephanie had managed to escape from him when he was so close to finally finishing her. How had she managed to create the porthole which had helped her escape?

It had all happened so quickly. Robbie had Stephanie caught in a dead end; up against a solid brick wall. There was nowhere she could run to. He had gone to shoot her but she had ducked out of the way. Then that damned porthole had appeared, swallowed her up then disappeared moments later before any of them could react.

Once they had got themselves together, Robbie and his team had retrieved their equipment and, with some work, had found that the old factory actually stood on a weakspot - a time rift. The laser blast, they believed, had possibly caused the rift to open for a few seconds. But was there any way of telling where it had opened on to or whether there was any way of opening it again? The scientists worked tirelessy to see if they could find out anything of use.

Whilst they did that, Robbie made his way back through the ruined city to his lair to check on his prisoners. Stephanie's friends Pixel, Ziggy, Stingy and Trixie were all kept in cramp, dirty cells. Robbie croutched down at looked at them all. He got a certain amount of saticfation out of seeing them like that. He could use their situation against them.

"Well, well, well. Some friend your esteemed leader is. First of all she allows Sportacus to die then she leaves you all to die too." Robbie made no effort at all to hide the amusement in his voice as he knew it would piss them off.

"She wouldn't do that to us!" Ziggy cried. "She cares about us. She'll come back for us."

"Are you sure?" Robbie asked. "Where is she then?"

Standing up, Robbie ordered his guards to bring Pixel along to the location of the time rift. Robbie knew he was the brains of the team so he might prove useful. Pixel seemed unwilling to help at first. Wherever Stephanie had ended up, Pixel knew he woud rather she stay there rather than bring her back and have her face certain death. Pixel had worked out pretty quickly that Stephanie had probably escaped through the time rift in that location. It could have been a number of factors that had opened up the rift. Using the scientists' equipment Pixel got a vague idea of a location. It was in another universe - a parrallel one. By helping, Pixel knew he was buying a little extra time for him and his friends and hopefully they could use that time in order to escape. And perhaps work out what had happened to Stephanie at the same time.

"Well?" Robbie asked eventually. "You're meant to be the clever one out of your friends. "Figured out where she went?"

"I'm not sure if I'm honest," Pixel answered. "This place is on top of a time rift and this wall is a weak spot. According to the read outs, at the same time that your blaster fire hit the wall, someone somewhere had hit the wall from their side at the same time. But there's no way of telling who did it. She could be anywhere."

"Then we open it up and we find out where she is and finish this." Robbie turned on his heels and left. As he did so, he shouted, "if you have the blast the hell out of that wall then so be it."

Now that it appeared that they had something to work with, the scientists worked on getting a porthole opened in the rift - and keeping it open - whilst Robbie got his best men together. Whatever was going to greet them on the other side, he wanted to be ready. Stephanie needed to be stopped no matter what. She was one of the few people left who could cause his downfall. Like Sportacus, she seemed to have the ability to rally people together. She had been the downfall of many of his best men. People loved her.

Robbie thought that killing Sportacus would end this war. So many cities had fallen because of the fighting. Sportacus's death hadn't made the slightest difference - it had only served to make the rebels more determined to stop Robbie. But since Stephanie's disappearence and the capture of her friends, the rebels seemed to be in a state of confusion. The sooner their leaders were dead the better. Once Stephanie was dead, Robbie would make sure the others were executed.

He wondered why he hadn't killed Stephanie the same day he had killed his nemisis. Every day Robbie pondered this. What had stopped him? What had made him hesitate for those few moments then had caused him to miss? For such a long time the answer alluded him. Maybe he would never work out why.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

In the 'good' Lazy Town.

It felt like forever before the machine appeared to be working again. It switched on at least and managed to stay on for a period of time. It would overheat occasionally but Pixel was working on that. Whether it would fire an energy bolt or not was another thing. Pixel and Robbie were yet to conduct a test run on that part. Stephanie was glad to know that the machine's repairs were going in the right direction but, at the same time, she was beginning to wonder if she actually _wanted_ to go back to her timeline. Everyone had been so kind to her and she was with the one person who had actually meant anything to her.

But she knew she couldn't really stay. Who knew what damage her existence was doing to their timeline. She couldn't live with herself knowing she could be having a detrimental affect on the lives on these people who seemed to really care about her. But there was that part of her that enjoyed the shopping trips with the younger Stephanie and playing sporty games with her friends. It was the first time in years that she had been able to just relax and have fun; without the worry of anyone trying to shoot her in the head or blow her up.

One morning Steph hadn't been able to sleep and decided to go for an early morning jog. She ended up running for miles and was deep in Lazy Town's countryside before she stopped for a rest and to stretch out her tired muscles. She wan't aware of the fact she had company until Sportacus spoke.

"I saw you heading out of town. I just wanted to check you were okay," he said in way of explanation. He had two bottles of water with him and he handed one to her.

Steph nodded. "Yeah, just needed to do something to clear my head." She took a deep drink from the water bottle then they began to walk back to Lazy Town together.

"Pixel tells that the machine appears to be ready. He wants to see if he can get it to work later today."

After a pause, Steph frowned but then dropped it in order to smile. Despite her own reservations, the last thing she wanted was Sportacus to worry more than he needed to. He genuinely cared about those around him; a trait that remained true in both realities. It was that trait that had made her fall in love with him the first time around. Being in this reality was bringing all the old feelings back. Without warning, Steph suddenly found herself crying. She couldn't help it. It all just suddenly got too much.

It felt so unfair. Why did her Sportacus have to die yet the current reality still had theirs? Eventually she was going to have to leave him behind - just like she had to once before - and she would never see him again. It was too heartbreaking to bear. She had been too busy crying that she hadn't noticed that Sportacus had wrapped her up in a hug. He didn't say a word. He just allowed her to cry and get it out of her system. Eventually Steph calmed down and cried herself out. Sportacus's steady breathing and heart beat was a comfort. Steph closed her eyes and clung to him, keeping her head rested on his chest.

Pulling herself away from him at least, Steph couldn't bear to look him in the eye at first. She didn't trust herself. Thankfully Sportacus didn't question her. All he did was take a-hold of her hand and they walked back to Lazy Town in silence. It was almost like he understood and he was allowing her to have the quiet time she needed to process whatever it was going on in her head. Steph was soon pulled out of her brooding when Robbie came dashing towards them. He looked scared and he appeared to be running from something. It took a few minutes to get any sense out of him.

"It's the machine...they got through..." Robbie panted.

"What do you mean? Who got through?" Sportacus asked.

"The machine. We gave it a test run, to see if it was power up and stay on... It went off and these people got through. One of them looked like me."

Steph seemed to accept what had happened. "They got through. They're here for me. And they won't care who they have to get through to get to me."

After establishing that Pixel had also managed to escape - Robbie had told him to get out and warn the others - the three of them knew there was probably only one thing they could realistically do. That was to go back into Lazy Town and try and get everyone out and to safety. Also they needed to do this without getting caught. Steph suggested the idea that she would go and give herself up to the evil Robbie to serve as a distarction so that the townsfolk could get out. Sportacus didn't like the idea.

"It's probably going to be the only way," Steph pointed out to him. "If these people are who I think they are, then they are after me. I don't want anyone else getting killed because of me. Believe me they won't care about innocent casulties."

When the three of them got to the town, they could see that evil Robbie and his minions had already started attacking. There were buildings damaged or on fire. Large plumes of smoke rose into the air. Although they couldn't see any from their hiding spot behind a wall, they guessed there was probably casulties as well - both injured and dead. Steph knew this was all down to her - if she wasn't there then evil Robbie and his cronies wouldn't have come looking for her. The good Robbie looked genuinely scared to be back there and probably wanted to be anywhere but there.

Then Steph saw him - evil Robbie. He was strutting around, obviously looking for her or anyone who had found her. Even if it was her dead body, she knew he would be happy either way. He wanted her gone. If she turned up dead then it would say him the bother of having to kill her himself. Giving the two men a nod to get going and find their friends and get them out, Steph hopped over the wall and - bold as brass - walked towards her enemy.

"Hey Robbie! Looking for me?" She shouted.


End file.
